Goodbye to old friends Hereford to Coventry via some beautiful country Wednesday 21st May

Today we said goodbye to Ken and Margaret, and hope that it is not 32 years between visits.  We have to thank them for introducing us to cider, and 4 in a Bed, and the Mappa Mundi museum.

Our trip took us through some really old towns, well I guess they all are, but all have something different.

The first town was Ledbury

The market place

Such old and different buildings

We then took a bit of a scenic route to Uptown on Severn, and found a great little marina tucked almost out of sight.  To get to the town we went through a very wide valley.  You could imagine the setting made a pretty good place to host a  battle.  Hills around and the knights racing down to charge their opposition.  Today the sheep have right of way, and on top of the road was a pay and display parking area!  In the middle of nowhere!

Bit hard to see as the distant hills are so far away

The marina made the perfect place to hide the Rolls, or the Bayliner!

A bit further along and we found Broadway.  I am in love, would move there at the drop of a hat if I was already living in the UK.   It is absolutely stunning.

The Lygon Hotel 

People were milling around, strolling around in the sunshine, and we went to the Tourist office to find out about the town.  It is the entry to the Cotwolds and the only town in Worchestershire to be in the Cotswolds.
The Cotswolds are famous in UK as one of the most beautiful places to visit, and they aren't wrong.

Cots - stone sheep house,  wolds  hills, and the building material is a form of limestone or sandstone from the area.  No new homes are built with the stone because it has run out, but the building has to be of similar materials.  The assortment of shops, from art galleries, to home decor shops, to clothing shops and the best sweet shop we have found.  Of course there are lots of cafes, and restaurants.

We ate lunch in a deli, not just any deli, but it must have sold every deli item imaginable.  Today's new try was pork pie.  They tried to explain that they are eaten cold, so I went along with that and it was lovely.

Lovely drink! another new experience

Along the route to Stratford on Avon we had a look at a couple of villages, but they were just so ordinary compared to Broadway.

Stratford on Avon was full of all sorts of tourists, it must be a lunch stop for the tour buses. There were heaps of them.  It was the birthplace of William Shakespeare and appears to be milked for all his name is worth.

Then to Barnacle Hall our very old farmhouse B&B on a working sheep farm, dates from 1730,  and nicely done.  The doors don't shut, because of the age, but the owners are 4th generation, and she has provided a very comfortable home for us for the next two nights.